Catharine Pendrel

I realized the other day that the last two articles I wrote for Pedal Magazine were “Overcoming Fear” and “Overcoming Injury”.  I joked that it would be nice to title my next article “What to do when everything goes exactly according to Plan!” but when does that ever really happen? After a fun week and Canada Cup with my Luna teammate Maghalie and her family near Montreal, Quebec we were off to Europe for our first World Cups of the season.   I was excited and ready to be back at it, but also aware that I was coming down with a cold.   Really?   Can’t I just have a regular old problem free comeback? The best thing about a cold that knocks you out though is for the first time EVER I think I slept 7hrs on an international flight and then had 4 naps between Munich and actually arriving in Nove Mesto!   All I seemed to want to do was sleep.   My body has a pretty killer immune system though so by Thursday I was feeling pretty good. The course in Czech is awesome.   The climb

So I'm washing my bike and a young girl says to me.  "Wow, it really is true!  I thought it was just an urban legend that you are still on 26in wheels!" The amazing singletrack in Mont Tremblant turned to soup for race day after 24hrs of rain and several hundred racers riding the track.  It was definitely a good challenge and chance to hone in my mud skills! A successful finish to the day.  Great to share the podium with such amazing athletes and people. Luna Team Support.  Thanks Dave! Maghalie rode to a strong 7th place finish in her 2nd season on mtb racing! Thanks to Eric Barnabe who snapped all these photos!

I couldn’t be happier to be sitting on a plane.   I am going racing!   It has been a long time since I raced at Mont Tremblant (2007?), so I am looking forward to meeting up with my teammate Maghalie near her hometown and friends for an awesome weekend of racing.   Not even the forecasted 35-45mm of rain will dampen my spirits! It has been 7 weeks since I was sidelined with a broken collar bone, but I have been able to train well and progressively return to what I hope is top form.   Rather than getting 8 days at home between two, month-long trips I got to spend 1.5 months at home to recover, recharge and build on my form.   Hopefully this will pay off later in the season J Again rehab was 2 weeks on the trainer, 2 weeks on the road bike, lots of athletic therapy and 2 weeks of mtn biking to get my back, shoulder and neck muscles to the strength they need for racing and my sharpness back on the bike.   Watching the World cups from home was a little tough, but also exciting